The archive · Hardware & Devices · Product decision · 2024–2026
Cosmic Robotics bets heavy-lift robots, built for solar farms, will build Mars
YC S26 startup's 10,000-lb Cosmic-1 installed tens of thousands of solar panels at 2x crew speed; $4M pre-seed, NASA lunar contract.
Cosmic Robotics
What the business is
Cosmic Robotics builds Cosmic-1, a 10,000-lb autonomous heavy-lift robot that places 90-lb solar panels with millimeter precision on utility-scale solar farms, roughly doubling crew productivity.
Starting capital：$4M pre-seed (Apr 2025), led by Giant Ventures with HCVC, MaC Ventures and angels Azeem Azhar, Aarthi Ramamurthy and Nate Williams.
How it started
James Emerick (Built Robotics, Autodesk Research, raised around construction sites) and Lewis Jones (Relativity Space, SpaceX, NASA JPL/Johnson Space Center) founded Cosmic Robotics in 2024. Jones' life ambition is a city on Mars; both concluded rockets were advancing faster than the machines needed to build infrastructure after landing.
What happened
Raised a $4M pre-seed in April 2025 (Giant Ventures-led; TechCrunch exclusive). Cosmic-1A placed one panel every 30–40 seconds using suction cups, cameras and high-accuracy GPS. Joined YC Summer 2026; Cosmic-1 has since completed tens of thousands of installation cycles at more than 2x manual crew productivity, per the company. It is adapting the platform for data-center construction and building Constellation fleet-coordination software; NASA's Phase I SBIR funds Cosmic-XT, a robot that walks along lunar trusses to install wiring.
No ending yet — it is still running.
Background
Cosmic Robotics was founded in 2024 by James Emerick and Lewis Jones with an explicit long shot: build a city on Mars. Emerick came from Built Robotics and Autodesk Research and grew up around construction; Jones worked on propulsion at Relativity Space and held roles at SpaceX and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory and Johnson Space Center. Their argument: rockets are no longer the limiting factor — construction is, and the construction robots don't exist yet.
So they built one for Earth first. Cosmic-1 is a 10,000-lb autonomous robot with a heavy-lift arm that picks up 90-lb solar panels and places them on racking with millimeter precision, in heat, snow, rain and dust. On utility-scale solar farms it has completed tens of thousands of installation cycles and, the company says, more than doubled crew productivity. TechCrunch covered the machine in April 2025 alongside a $4M pre-seed led by Giant Ventures.
In Summer 2026 the company joined YC's S26 batch. It is now adapting Cosmic-1 for data-center construction (cooling pipes, cables) and building Constellation, jobsite-coordination software. NASA separately awarded a Phase I SBIR for Cosmic-XT, a self-powered robot that walks along lunar trusses to install wiring — distinct from Cosmic-1 but the same thesis: robotic manipulation for environments where labor is scarce. Competitors include Built Robotics, Terabase and AES's Maximo.
What has to be true
- The wedge is chosen for feasibility: repetitive 90-lb panel placement is the easiest heavy-lift task, so the robot earns revenue while learning the skills needed for harder construction.
- Solar contractors overlap with data-center contractors, giving a natural expansion path from one capital-heavy market into another.
- The Mars story sets the technical bar — autonomy, weather tolerance, uptime — that makes the Earth product credible, and it attracted NASA funding.
- Founders bring both halves: construction-software experience (Built Robotics, Autodesk Research) and space systems (SpaceX, Relativity, NASA).
What can be applied
Bet on the revenue-generating version of the moonshot: a Mars-construction thesis paid for by solar-farm labor shortages converts a decade-out vision into today's product.
Aftermath
As of 2026-09-02, Cosmic Robotics is an eight-person San Francisco company in YC S26. Cosmic-1 is deployed on some of the largest US solar farms, with tens of thousands of panel installs and 2x claimed labor productivity; the team is adapting the platform for data-center construction and developing Constellation coordination software. NASA's Phase I SBIR funds development of Cosmic-XT, a lunar truss robot, with Jones as principal investigator. Near-term market is Earth infrastructure; Mars construction remains the stated long-term mission.
Sources
- Exclusive: Cosmic Robotics' robots could speed up solar panel deployments
- Cosmic Robotics: Autonomous construction on Earth and beyond
- Cosmic Robotics joins YC with a 10,000-pound robot already installing solar panels
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